0815 HRS

  26th October, 2013

THE HEADLINES

• Thousands of people remain marooned at several places in flood affected coastal districts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh; Relief work underway.

• PMO handovers to the CBI the file regarding allocation of coal block to Hindalco.

• New Delhi will continue to work with Latin American countries and others to strengthen consensus for restructuring the United Nations, says the Vice President .

• India's foreign exchange reserves shoot up for the third consecutive week, touching 281 billion dollars.

• A 7.3 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan's east coast, triggering small tsunamis.

• Heavy rains cause uncertainty over the fifth one dayer between India and Australia scheduled to be played at Cuttack today.

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At least 25 people have lost their lives due to fresh floods in Odisha. Floods, triggered by low pressure induced rain, have devastated cyclone-hit Ganjam and other coastal districts. Over 5 lakh people in more than 2,000 villages have been affected by the floods, while around 1.5 lakh people have been evacuated to safety. All rivers in Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada and Nayagarh districts are in spate.

State Revenue and Disaster Management Minister SN Patro said, helicopters have been pressed into service in the worst-hit Ganjam district. He said, a tie up with the Indian Air Force has been done to move NDRF battalions to different places. Patro also said, that thousands of people are trapped in the flood waters in the Aska, Sorada, Hinjili, Sergarh, Belaguntha, Rangelunda blocks and Gajapati district. Flood waters have submerged railway tracks at many places.

The state government has announced closure of schools and colleges in the coastal districts. It has also asked the collectors of all coastal districts to evacuate people from low-lying areas.

The MeT department has predicted heavy to very heavy rain today in North and South Odisha.

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The Flood situation continues to be grim in Andhra Pradesh, as several rivers and rivulets especially in the Coastal districts are in spate due to heavy inflows. Meanwhile, relief operations are underway. 12 teams of the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed at different places. 20 people have died due to rain related incidents, while about six thousand houses have been damaged. More from our correspondent. 

"Rail services disrupted with flood water flowing over tracks at several places and road transport stalled as over thousand Kilometres long roads washed away across the state. Low laying areas at numerous places were flooded. Thousands of villages and residential colonies marooned in especially north and south coastal districts and some parts of Telangana region. Major rivers including Godavari, Krishna, Penna, Nagavali, Vamsadhara and numerous rivulets and streams are in spate posing threat of flooding to many more habitations. About 68 thousand people are taking shelter in 135 relief camps set up at different places. "Lakshmi, AIR News, Hyderabad."

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Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has said that the Group of Ministers, GoM on Telangana will submit its report to the Cabinet before the winter session of Parliament. Mr. Shinde, who heads the seven member GoM, said, there is a process for creating a new state and when Parliament passes bill, the new state will come into being. 

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has said that the Central Government is going ahead with the bifurcation issue, ignoring the views of stakeholders and bypassing established practices like referring such an important issue to the state Assembly. Mr. Reddy has written to the President Mr. Pranab Mukherjee and to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in this regard.

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The Prime Minister's Office, PMO has handed over to the CBI the file related to the controversial allocation of coal block to Hindalco in Odisha, as sought by the investigation agency. A PMO official told PTI that the Central Bureau of Investigation had sought the file related to the allocation and that the file was given to the CBI on its receipt. The PMO informed the CBI that it is ready to provide any other information, if required, about the allocation of Talabira coal block made in 2005.

The Prime Minister has defended the decision as entirely appropriate and based on the merits of the case presented to him. Controversy erupted over the allocation after the CBI registered an FIR against Birla and former Coal Secretary PC Parakh last week.

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All content posted by political parties and election candidates on internet and social media websites like Facebook and twitter will now come under the scanner of the Election Commission. The Commission yesterday issued detailed instructions to Chief Electoral Officers of all states and to various political parties in the country in this regard. The move aims at maintaining transparency and providing a level playing field  to political parties in the forthcoming assembly elections in five states.

The Poll body has  asked the parties and candidates contesting the upcoming Assembly polls to provide details of their internet or  social media accounts along with a statement of expenditure incurred for creating them. 

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Scrutiny of nominations for the first phase of Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh will take place today. 225 nominations were filed for 18 constituencies going to polls in the first phase on November 11. 111 nominations were filed on the last day yesterday. Nomination papers can be withdrawn till Monday.

Notification for the second phase was issued yesterday, marking the beginning of filing of nominations in 72 constituencies. Nomination papers for the second phase can be filed till November 1.

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Food Minister K V Thomas has reiterated that the price of onion will come down in the next 10 days with the fresh arrival of domestic and imported stock. 

From the last two weeks I personally discussed with the state governments and the information which we had with us is that onion is coming to the markets. We think that within next 10 days things should be under control but for abundant portions Nafed is already floated for importing onion from others countries. By 29th final decision will be taken.

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India's foreign exchange reserves shot up for the third week in a row, adding 1.9 billion dollars to touch 281.12 billion dollars in the week. In the previous week, the reserves had increased by 1.51 billion to 279.24 billion dollars. The Reserve Bank has said that Foreign Currency Assets, which form the largest chunk of the reserves, jumped to 252.7 billion dollars in the week under review.

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India has said that the United Nations formed decades ago in 1945, is inadequate to resolve the emerging political situations of the modern world. Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari said this while interacting with mediapersons en route to Frankfurt onboard a Special Aircraft. Mr. Ansari said, the emergent political situations in the world are testimony to this fact and India has consistently pursued its agenda for reform of global governance institutions especially the United Nations and global financial institutions. Mr. Ansari, who will arrive in Peru today after an overnight stay at Frankfurt, said New Delhi will continue to work with Latin American countries and other like-minded nations to further strengthen consensus for restructuring of the United Nations.  Mr. Ansari said, India adopted a global outlook owing to the current diplomatic requirements which are vastly different to those of 1947. He said India’s political and economic engagements with the world are not contradictory, but mutually supportive. 

"We have much to share with the world and other countries are very happy to share our cultural repertoire with them so that is one side of it and economic engagement is on the other side of it, political engagement is the third side of it. They don't overlap, they don't contradict on the contrary, they are mutually supportive."

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A 7.3 magnitude earthquake has struck Japan's east coast, triggering small tsunamis, but causing no apparent damage. The US Geological Survey said, the quake struck at a depth of 10 Kilometres at 2:10 am local time, 327 Kilometres southeast of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture. Tsunamis of up to 40 centimeters were reported from four areas along the coast, including Soma in Fukushima, but a tsunami advisory was lifted less than two hours after the quake. A news agency reported that workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant were ordered to evacuate the waterfront. Quoting the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the agency said, no new abnormalities had been found at the power station.

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In Syria, a car bomb explosion at a mosque near the capital Damascus has killed 40 people. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, dozens of people were wounded in the explosion in the town of Suq Wadi Barada. The blast came just before the end of Friday prayers and brought down the mosque's entrances. Both the government and rebels have blamed each other for the explosion.

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Women activists in Saudi Arabia, pressing for an end to the ban on driving by women, have dropped plans to organize a drive-in Campaign today amidst threats of legal action by the authorities. Interior Ministry has warned that any violation of the ban on women behind the wheels won't be tolerated. Saudi Arabia is the only country, where women are banned from driving. More from our West Asia Correspondent: 

"Leading Saudi woman activist Najla Al Hariri said that out of the caution and respect for the interior ministry's warnings they have urged the women not to launch drive in campaign today. They have rather been advised to go in for an open driving campaign. The campaign website with online petition signed by more than 16,000 people was blocked by the authorities and later hacked on Friday. Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki also warned them not to campaign even online else action will be taken against them on the basis of cyber crime law. Atul Tiwary, AIR News, Dubai."

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"The fifth one dayer of the 7-match cricket series between India and Australia, scheduled to take place in Cuttack today, is facing uncertainty, as heavy rains are lashing parts of Odisha. The Odisha Cricket Association has said that the chances of drying up of waterlogged Barabati Stadium are extremely remote. All India Radio will broadcast live commentary on the match. It can be heard alternately in Hindi and English on the Rajdhani and FM Gold Channels from 1 PM onwards. Visitors Australia are currently leading the series, 2-1. The last ODI at Ranchi was washed out due to rain.         

In Formula One, the Qualifying session of the 3rd  Indian Grand Prix will be held at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh today. In a three-stage knock-out system, the qualifying will determine the position, on which the drivers will start tomorrow's race. In the two practice sessions yesterday, both the Red Bull drivers, German Sebastian Vettel and Aussie Mark Webber were the two fastest. This year's Indian Grand Prix may see Sebastian Vettel, the winner of the two races held on the Indian soil so far, lift his fourth successive Driver's title. Savvy Hasan Khan, For Air News."

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NEWSPAPER HEADLINES 

• The top headlines today are of the PMO handing over key 'coal block allocation' files to the CBI. The Asian Age reports that files related to allocation of the Talabira II and III coal blocks in Orissa to Kumar Mangalam Birla's private firm Hindalco in 2005, were, yesterday, handed over to the CBI. 
• Hindustan Times reports that more than 50 years after Tata Airlines was renamed Air India Ltd. and Nationalised, the Tata Group will bid for a stake in the national carrier if the govt went ahead with privatization of the Airline. 
• According to diplomatic sources, India will still have to bear with China's policy of issuing stapled visas for people from Arunachal Pradesh, informs the Hindu. China, however, had dropped its practice of giving stapled visas to people from J&K. 
• Hindustan Times, while quoting J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdulla, writes 'ceasefire violations cannot happen without the consent of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and that talks of friendship and strong relations with India, recently made by Nawaz Sharif were of no use as such LoC violations still continue. 
• And finally, for lovers of the old-world Steam Engine, The Pioneer writes that one of the last surviving steam locomotives, Akbar - has been renovated at the Amritsar workshop and is now ready for hauling coaches between New Delhi and Alwar in Rajasthan from Saturday.